


let not light see

by ThisJoyAndI



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-16 03:07:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11819967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThisJoyAndI/pseuds/ThisJoyAndI
Summary: (my black and deep desires)Jon leaves Winterfell and Petyr muses on the situation at hand. 'He has seen kings rise and fall, and he will most likely live to see another fall. Nothing good has ever come from a Stark going south, after all.'





	let not light see

It must be fate, Petyr decides. For there must be some reason, something which is entirely out of his control, that ensures the repetition of this cruelty. If he had any say at all in the matter, if he held any sway over what is occurring, this torture would not be happening, not again, _not again_.

Gods, must a Tully always love a Stark?

Jon Snow rides south, and Sansa, so similar to Cat in looks but yet so very different in temperament (hardened before her time – by Joffrey’s cruelty, by Ramsay’s abuse) watches her bastard brother leave, the look in her eyes akin to one Petyr has tried desperately for years to forget. She may not have loved him as she would come to love his brother, but he had oft watched Cat watch Brandon Stark leave Riverrun with the same reluctant acceptance that he now sees in her daughter's eyes. It has been years but he can remember everything so clearly – the hopelessness, the foolishness, the ensuing determination to ensure no one would ever make a fool of him again. And he had succeeded, hadn’t he? He may not have ever had Cat, but he had made something of himself. Master of Coin, Lord Baelish, Lord Protector of the Vale… he has seen kings rise and fall, and he will most likely live to see another fall. Nothing good has ever come from a Stark going south, after all.  

And yet, his throat still smarts from the boy’s grasp. How quick to anger he is, how easy to manipulate. Even though his skin will likely bruise, he still bears the scars from Brandon’s sword, a reminder of a man long gone. And a bruise is nothing in exchange for information obtained, the knowledge of how best to control Jon Snow, how best to threaten him. The Starks may injure him as much as they like, but both Brandon and Ned are long dead whilst he still breathes. And Jon Snow has ridden south to perhaps meet the same fate as his father, as his uncle, as his grandfather. It is more than likely that Daenerys Targaryen will see fit to rid herself of the King in the North, more than likely that any attempt at forging an alliance will end in bloodshed. Jon Snow may very die, and so it will be upon Sansa that control of the North falls.

Sansa will mourn the loss of her bastard brother, Jon Snow’s very existence the result of the one transgression against Cat the honourable Ned Stark had committed. And he cannot deny that it still smarts, the knowledge that even despite Jon Snow’s presence in her household, in her family, Cat had chosen to remain Ned’s loyal and loving wife. He would have given her the world if she had only let him, but Sansa will perhaps prove smarter than her mother. She does not trust him, he isn't as foolish as to think so, and she would rebuke his touch if he ever dared to touch her, for he is who gave her to Ramsay, who let her suffer such cruelty in her family home… but she’s a smart girl. Far smarter than Joffrey, than Cersei, ever thought her to be. Her cousin may be Lord of the Eyrie, but Sansa knows it is he who truly controls the Vale. And if they are to win this war – against Daenerys, against the Long Night – the Starks need the Vale and its men, and so it is in Winterfell he shall stay, it is Sansa’s ear that he shall continue to whisper in, and it is Sansa’s hand in marriage that he shall eventually obtain.

He is a patient man. After Brandon’s sword nearly took his life, he vowed never again to stoop to such an act of irrationality. He will wait for as long as it takes, because he is certain that when her bastard brother perishes and Daenerys proves as unstable as her father Sansa will recognise the sense in becoming his wife. The Northern lords may not like it, but their words mean little. Sansa is the eldest surviving child of Ned Stark, and it is she who should have rightfully been crowned, not her bastard brother. He shall see a crown resting on top her head, on top of his, before he passes from this world. She will give him children, sons and daughters with her Tully hair and his features... children who should have long been adults by now. 

He knows she will never love him. But what is love, in comparison to power? He doesn’t need to be loved, not when he has the ability to shape all that is before him as he sees fit.

But as he watches Sansa standing long after Jon Snow has left Winterfell, her unblinking gaze turned to the direction of White Harbour…. he cannot deny the annoyance that rises in him at the thought that yet again, yet again, it is a Stark who has captured the heart of a Tully. He is certain that even Sansa herself is not aware of what she feels, but there it is, concern etched into the lines of her face. If she is aware, he is certain that she has tried to dissuade herself of such a feeling, for she believes Jon Snow to be her brother, the 

And he shall be dead soon. Kings always die, whether it is by boar, by poison, by magic or by betrayal. 

Jon Snow shall be dead, and Sansa is not a fool. She will not mourn her dead bastard brother any longer than is necessary, for there are still things to do, wars to prepare for. And she shall need him most then, when she is once more bereft of any familial comfort. Sansa will not love a dead man, the same way her mother had not loved Brandon but rather, agreed to wed his brother. She will mourn, but she will not surrender herself to melancholy over yet another loss.

Even if Jon Snow may be a Targaryen. 

But that revelation will die when he does, and there is no reason for Sansa to ever be told.  

**Author's Note:**

> Petyr Baelish is perhaps the most vile character to ever exist and if he doesn't die soon I'm going to be very upset. 
> 
> Anyway, I don't know exactly how I've fallen down the Jon/Sansa rabbit hole... but here I am. I blame Sophie and Kit's beautiful faces.


End file.
